The present invention relates to a photographic apparatus installed at a storefront, a tourist site, and the like for users to take their ID photos or commemorative photos. More specifically, the present invention relates to a photographic method which is capable of taking ID photos and commemorative photos against appropriate backgrounds without needing drapery, a panel, or the like as a backdrop, and a photographic apparatus for implementing the photographic method.
ID photo-taking apparatuses installed at storefronts of photo labs, street corners, and the like usually have a box (booth) shape so that a person to be photographed (subject) enters the box and takes a picture of himself/herself against a given background under appropriate shooting conditions.
It is also common for commemorative photo-taking apparatuses installed at tourist sites, amusement parks, and the like to have drapery, a panel, or the like placed behind the subject in order to provide an even background.
While most of such commemorative or ID photo-taking apparatuses do not give users background options, photographic apparatuses disclosed in JP 05-161064 A and U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,148 are capable of compositing an image of a subject with an arbitrarily chosen background by utilizing chroma key technology which is used mainly for motion pictures, to extract (separate) the subject from the photographed image. However, this type of apparatus also needs a given backdrop (usually blue screen) in order to properly extract the subject by chroma key technology.
In short, conventional commemorative or ID photo-taking apparatuses need a box large enough for a person to enter inside, or drapery or a panel as a backdrop, which makes the apparatuses large in size and accordingly raises such problems as limited installation locations and high cost.
JP 2003-179811 A discloses an animation image compositing apparatus capable of compositing animation images without drapery or a panel as a backdrop. This apparatus detects changes in an animation footage taken, recognizes pixels whose coordinates have changed as motion pixels, extracts a principal image based on the result of recognizing motion pixels, discards other images than the principal image as background images, and composites the principal image cut out of the background with a created background image that is specifically chosen for this principal image.
The apparatus disclosed in JP 2003-179811 A utilizes changes in an image to extract the subject.
Therefore, the possibility is strong that an object in the background is included in the extracted subject when there is a change in the background such as a change in position of a background object (e.g., a parked car pulling out) and an appearance of a new background object (e.g., a passerby). In short, the apparatus of JP 2003-179811 A is low in accuracy of extracting the subject. Moreover, this method is not applicable to still images such as ID photos and commemorative photos taken according to JP 05-161064 A and U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,148, since those images exhibit no change that can be used to extract the subject.